Shattered Wings: What It Means to Be Human
by Scissors-is-a-Nerd
Summary: Takes place 1,000 years before the plot of Shattered Wings.—In a world where demons like Garuru must stoop to degrading acts in order to possess humans and blend in with their society, Garuru finds himself in a sticky situation when he realizes he might have gone a bit too far…. Other characters featured.—Not necessary to read Shattered Wings to read this; spoilers ahead tho.
1. Not Their Real Son

**A/N: Heeeey all ya new readers! If you didn't read the long-ass story Shattered Wings, that's okay, I don't blame you. This is just a short story that doesn't have to do with Shattered Wings's plot, but it is set in the same world, and it will probably end up being 15,000 words max.**

 **Here is the first chapter and you can already tell how short the chapters are going to be compared to those 9,000 words suckers Rainbowkittyblossomwings and I cranked out. (You can find the full story on Rainbowkittyblossomwings's profile by the way, but I'm warning you. It's loooooong.)**

 **It is very heavy in the fantasy/supernatural department, so there will be a lot in terms or rules about the demon realm and demon possession and etc that I have to explain.**

 **For those of you who did read Shattered Wings, how? And also this features Garuru and Pururu because if you recall, they were married in Shattered Wings and now this is explaining how that happened because why not.**

 **So, eehhhhhh I hope you enjoy this introductory chapter.**

* * *

Even though Pulala appeared to roam the earth alive, Garuru still held a funeral for her.

The _real_ Pulala—the one he knew and loved for such a short time in his long, long life—was no longer real. She no longer existed.

It was all because of that cursed Nishizawa Contract. The Contract had taken Pulala away.

As he lit some incense by the small grave he'd made for his daughter, a thought occurred to him. Was this karma? Was this his payment for the atrocities he had committed? Was he finally getting a taste of his own medicine?

Was this what it meant to be human?

* * *

It had all started with a young man named Goro.

Goro was a very normal man. He was a serious character and excelled at everything he did, from his schooling to the job he had taken up a couple years back as a commercial contractor. It was a boring job, but he got to travel various areas and see so many towns. People normally didn't travel out of town often, for fear of the unknown. Mysterious monsters loomed just outside of the towns, roaming the forests and beaches.

Because Goro travelled so much for his work, he was very distant from people. He made friends with much difficulty and never kept in contact with them for very long. He hadn't even seen his parents for two years. But they were writing to him often and insisting that he come home and visit, so at once point toward the end of spring he finally relented and decided to pay his folks a visit.

It was a long trip. He had just finished a building project over in Lichte, a town very far away from where his parents lived. When he finally got to town, it had been so long since he had seen the place that he couldn't quite remember where his parents lived. But after a bit of trial and error, he finally found their residence and entered it.

"Goro!" His mother and father greeted him happily with a big hug. "It's been forever! How is work?"

"Work has been going fine," Goro answered monotonously. He was about to set his bags down by the door, but his mother quickly took them from him.

"We'll get these set up in your room for you right away, honey." She delivered a kiss to his forehead. "We're just so happy that you've paid us a visit. Your father and I were worried for a while whether you were… well… whether you were avoiding us."

She exchanged a nervous look with his father.

"But you weren't, of course," his father quickly said. "Because… you're our son."

To break the awkward silence, he and his wife laughed together.

Goro frowned. This was why he never came home. Things were always so awkward at home, and he always felt as if he was walking on eggshells. But what wasn't spoken of wasn't worth worrying about.

For the rest of the day, he and his parents caught up with each other. They made him delicious, home-cooked meals and he told his most amusing and horrific stories from work. He listened politely as they gossiped about people from their own workplaces.

As he was stabbed at his food helplessly with a pair of chopsticks, his mom caught him off-guard with that dreaded question. "So, do you have a girlfriend yet?"

"What?" Goro asked. He didn't like the way she said "yet." "Well… no. I've been quite busy at work."

His mother frowned. "Too busy to socialize and meet people?"

He nodded very seriously.

"Honey…" His mother reached across the table and stroked his hand. "Your father and I talked it over and… we think it's about time you settled down with a nice girl. We're getting old, and… we'd like to be able to see our grandchildren before we leave the world."

"Of course," said Goro, swallowing a piece of food. "I just haven't met the right person yet."

"All right, but you had better do it soon," said his mother. "I'm not going to let you go back on your promise to me. You know what you always said when you were younger—'Mom, I can't wait to get married to a girl when I'm older. I'm so excited, because I love girls. Not boys.' I don't know why you always said the last part but your father and I have taken what you said to heart and now we want some grandbabies."

Goro coughed. "Thassgreat."

His father cleared his throat, as well. "Actually… since it has taken you quite a while to find 'the right person,' we've somewhat taken it into our own hands to set you up with someone."

Now Goro _did_ cough for real. "Excuse me?"

"You'll like her," he said. "She's the daughter of a friend of mine from work. I've heard she works as a paramedic down at the hospital." He gave him a wink. "You know those doctor types. You two will hit it off for sure, son."

Goro was so excited. He expressed his excitement with an elated, silent gape.

"You _are_ … excited, aren't you, son?" his mother asked cautiously. "Of course you are. Only a _demon_ wouldn't be excited…."

Goro laughed. "Don't talk nonsense, mother!" he said. "You know I wouldn't have lost against a demon. I'm your boy. I'm better than that."

His mother smiled about him. But on the inside, worry constantly ate away at her.

Everybody knew about the demons, but only adults knew the true secret behind demon possession.

Every kid around the world at the age of fourteen was required to host a demon in their body. For the next two years, they went away to Secondary School and got to learn about their demon. Kids were taught that it was a painless process, that it was just like having a roommate in your head for two years.

But what they didn't know was, at the end of those two years, the demon and the human fought for permanent control of their body. If the demon lost, they went back to their demon realm, and the human got to keep their own body.

But if the human lost, the demon would eat their soul, and the human's spirit would die.

The only thing Goro's mom knew about the demon her son received was that he went by the name Garuru, and that he had never lost a Demon Fight in his near-immortal life.

And Goro had always called her "mom" before he went away to Secondary School. Not "mother."

Deep down, she and her husband knew that the person sitting before them was not actually their son. But the truth was more painful than playing pretend.

* * *

The next day, during the morning when Goro's parents were still asleep, Goro went out into the street for an early morning walk. He would have taken one during the night, since he didn't sleep much. But it was forbidden to use the streets at night—there was a curfew that the authorities and peacekeepers strictly enforced.

He didn't see anyone else out on the streets so early that morning. A couple of kids cycled past him on bikes, but that was about it.

He thought he was alone. But as he turned a corner around a building, he felt the unmistakable presence something approaching him from behind.

 _Attacker!_ his mind thought. Instinctively, he swiveled around and pointed a rifle perfectly at the forehead of the person behind him.

It looked to be an average-looking man, holding a pathetically small knife in his hand. He was shivering at the sight of the much larger weapon aimed at his brains.

"Y-you… you… took that gun from out of nowhere," he quivered. "H-h-h-how is that possible?"

Goro's hands glowed a purple aura, part of his particular ability, and the weapon vanished. "You will tell _no one_ of what you saw."

The man narrowed his eyes. "You're a demon, aren't you," he realized. "No human should be able to do that." He turned his heel, no doubt to go spread the news to the authorities.

A dangerous demon like Goro—no… like Garuru—on the loose should be reported at once, after all.

Garuru had no choice but to silence him. He whipped out a sniper and trained it on the man's back, where his heart was located, and took him down. Then he walked over to the man, flung him over his shoulder, and carried him off to dispose of him.

There were kids out in these streets. He couldn't have humans spreading around his whereabouts where kids could hear.

It was always a grueling task, but the life of a demon was not an easy one.


	2. You Get Used to It

**This chapter was fun to write, even though this wasn't supposed to be a chapter story, but it got too long so I had to break it into chapters. Umm... yeah. Enjoy.**

* * *

When Garuru returned to Goro's parents' house, he was surprised to see that the girl his parents had picked out for him was already seated at the table, along with her own parents next to her.

"Ah! Goro, you're back!" called his mother. She gestured to him and whispered to the girl across from her, "I swear, that boy's always out taking nature walks!"

"Is that so?" asked the girl pleasantly.

As Garuru took his seat at the table, Goro's father gestured to the girl. "Goro, this is Kimi, the woman I told you about," he said to him.

"Um… hi," Kimi offered with a nervous laugh.

Garuru nodded to her respectfully. "I am delighted to have the pleasure of meeting you, Kimi."

"Likewise," she said.

All their parents watched them, wondering if they would talk more and connect. But they did nothing of the sort.

"Honey, go get some tea and snacks for all of us," Goro's father requested. As she left, he started chatting with his coworker, Kimi's father, about various current events that interested them. Goro's mom soon came back with food and drink and set them on the table.

Garuru poured Kimi some tea, since that was the polite thing to do. He really didn't want to take any food, but his mother insisted on it.

"Um, all right," he said. He tried to pick the pieces of food up with his chopsticks and failed miserably. He wished she could have gotten something that you could eat with your hands. He couldn't use chopsticks for the life of him.

When he looked across the table at Kimi, he could tell that she was trying not to laugh as she watched him. Garuru felt ashamed, but he didn't show it. When nobody was watching, he snatched up a piece of food with his fingers and popped it into his mouth. "Mm. Delicious as always, mother."

Taking out curious humans was nothing compared to having to eat with chopsticks. This was the true struggle that demonkind had to face in order to blend in with human society.

Really, the chopstick thing was just Garuru, but he liked to believe that it was _all_ demons who had to deal with this.

"Ah, Goro," his mother piped up during the older adults' conversation, "why don't you show Kimi around town?"

"Oh. I can do that," said Garuru. _How unfortunate…. I had other plans for today. Ah, well… I suppose they can wait for another day._

He stood up from the table and waited for Kimi to do the same, then took her outside into the streets.

"I assume you've never been to this town before?" he asked her.

She smiled. "I have. Quite a few times, actually. But my parents keep forgetting that."

"Is that so?" he asked, trying not to sound disinterested in the story. He, himself, knew the town like the back of his hand. In fact, he knew every town in the country like the back of his hand. As a demon, it was possible that you would receive hosts in many different places. He had lived for several millennia, so it was always interesting to see how towns changed over time, whether it was technologically, geographically, or culturally.

It was only about every thousand years that the towns underwent severe technological changes, and that was because it was only every thousand years that the king of the demons took his human host. He, and the king before him, and even the king before him for a short while, all used their inventive prowess to bring human society to a new age of intelligence and machinery. It was all thanks to the ancient contract, the Nishizawa Contract, that the Demon King could only come back every thousand years. Otherwise he'd come back way more frequently, and that would be a problem for everybody, because he was a real asshole.

The next time the Demon King was returning was in two years, and everyone was on edge. Evidently, from what Garuru heard, some young rich boy had already been chosen as the next host for the Demon King, and his How to Tolerate the Demon King training had already started a couple years back.

The poor kid.

"What would you say is the best part of town?" Garuru asked Kimi, since she told him that she had been there before.

"What I think? Hm…." She tapped her chin. "There's a tree on the top of a hill just by the town gates. From up there, you can see a view of the entire town and the mountains in the distance."

"Delightful," said Garuru. "We'll go there at once."

"Really?" Kimi seemed pleased. "All right, then. I'll lead you to it."

A bit bashfully, she took him by the arm and led him to the area with the tree on the hill. Garuru let her.

As they sat on the hill together, overlooking the town, Kimi brought up what was on both their minds. "It's kind of weird for our parents to be trying to set us up, don't you think?"

"I suppose so," Garuru agreed. "I'm not particularly looking for love at the moment. My job actually makes me rather busy most of the time."

"Really?" Kimi looked surprised. "Your parents told me that you were a contractor!"

"Oh… yes," he recalled. "It's a busy job. I have to travel quite frequently for it. And my boss… he likes to play around with me a bit."

"Ohh," she breathed sympathetically. "I'm awfully sorry. Bosses can be really heartless."

Often literally, Garuru wanted to say. Of course, being his contractor wasn't his _real_ job. He was actually an advisor to the Demon King—often nowadays in name only, since the Demon King, Kululu, would rather jerk him around than make him do any serious stuff.

For example, before his latest hosting endeavor with Goro, Kululu had produced a list of tasks for him to perform while he was on earth, many of which included things like, "make sure the human realm is a decent place to live in before I take a host," and "make sure my host isn't totally boring," and "make sure nobody wants to kill me when I get there." Other tasks were more absurd, like "become a contractor," and "ku ku ku," and "go screw yourself," and "go find me some angels."

The angels had gone extinct nine thousand years ago. By _Kululu's_ hand.

Who did this guy think he was?!

At this point, however, Garuru was used to his antics, and unfortunately he wasn't the type to question authority… even if it was Kululu's authority.

"What about you?" he asked. "I heard you work as a paramedic. How busy is that?"

"Pretty busy," she admitted. "Not a lot of free time there, either."

"That's a shame," he lied. This was good that she wouldn't have any time to date him. He didn't want to start up a relationship with any humans.

One of the awful things about being a demon—besides having to use chopsticks—was blending into human society. Several demons had to stoop to desperate measures, even marrying humans and breeding with them, to keep low profiles. It was a tactic that humans loved to use against each other to discern who were the demons and who were the humans living among them. "Oh? You don't want to get married and have kids? You must be a demon!"

At least this kept the humans breeding, or else none of them would have kids at all due to how little they all trusted each other. After all, people weren't allowed to speak much of demons, for fear that the authorities and peacekeepers would execute them, or for fear that children would hear.

It was particularly vital that demons blend in to human society for a number of reasons: For one, human souls were a demons' food source. The more humans that surrounded them, the more energy they drew.

Two, there were several perks of being immersed in human society, like the advanced technology and the diverse culture. The demon realm didn't have much of either of those things; and even though the Demon King was technologically savvy, he never used his inventions to better the demon realm since he became king.

Three, the Nishizawa Contract—which stated that all demons could gain a free possession period of humans for two years, and then win over their host at the end of that period—required children to not be educated on the Demon Fight, in case demons found a loophole in the contract and took even younger hosts, staying on the human plane for much longer. For that reason, all demons were required to not reveal themselves in humans over the age of sixteen; and if they somehow broke that, the peacekeepers and authorities would surely take them away for execution. And the assassins that worked for those jobs were merciless.

Did the Demon King care that his demons would be killed if they revealed themselves to human society? No, he didn't give a damn. When demons died on the human plane after fully possessing a human, they simply returned to the demon realm in their true form and had to wait a couple of years for their next chance to get food. Kululu liked seeing them fail constantly, because he was a jerk, and reveled in bringing others down with him, since he was only allowed to come to the human plane every thousand years due to the Nishizawa Contract.

Secretly, Garuru always thought to himself, if Kululu hated coming back so infrequently, why did he put that in the contract in the _first_ place? He was the one who created it with the ancient Nishizawas, after all. But he supposed there were just some things he would never understand.

"It's a good job though," Kimi told him, snapping him from his thoughts. "Decent pay. Uh… get to work with a lot of people and save their lives."

"What if you can't save them?" Garuru asked.

"Yeah, well, that's not as fun." She knit her brows sadly and sighed. "Perk of the job, I guess. But you get used to death after a while."

 _You get used to death after dying hundreds of times in human bodies,_ thought Garuru. But he didn't say this.

"Still, sometimes it is a bit disheartening when you can't do enough," Kimi confessed, drawing her knees to her chest.

Garuru frowned. "You should never feel guilty about not being able to save a patient's life, Kimi. As a paramedic, you do all that you can to save the person. If that isn't enough, well then, that isn't on you. Often people are past the point of saving by the time paramedics get to them. So if you can't save them, then all you can do is make their passing a little more comfortable, and I'm sure that's what they would thank you for if they could." Even though she was just a human, that didn't necessarily mean Garuru couldn't give her advice. He felt she ought to know what was on his mind.

"Th-thank you," Kimi said, surprised at the encouraging words. "That… means a lot to me."

Garuru stood up. "Well, it's been a while. Our folks are probably expecting us to head back by now." He outstretched his arm for her to take, and she pulled herself up to her feet.

"Thanks for coming out here with me," she said. "Even though we both know we're not going to take this any further for our parents… it was fun getting out for once and taking in the scenery."

"Of course," Garuru said. "Anytime."

As they walked back to Goro's house together, Garuru and Kimi found themselves trapped as they approached a small crowd of kids who were taking up the middle of the street. They seemed to be crowding around something.

"What's going on?" Kimi wondered. She took Garuru by the wrist. "Come on, we'd better check it out."

As they approached the crowd of kids, they spotted a girl on her knees who looked around thirteen, and another person was behind her, holding her up by her orange hair. It looked painful, and in front of the orange-haired girl was another girl her age in front of the crowd, who was slapping her across the face. Garuru and Kimi couldn't make out what they were saying, but it was easy enough to tell that someone was getting picked on.

"And don't you dare call us losers, because you know what, it takes one to know one!" they heard as they got closer.

"Okay, okay," the orange-haired girl moaned.

Garuru and Kimi finally made it to the circle of kids. "What the angel feathers is going on here?" Garuru demanded.

"Eep! Adults!" someone shrieked. The person behind the orange-haired girl quickly dropped her to the ground and put her hands up to show that she wasn't carrying any weapons. Garuru almost flinched when he saw the orange-haired girl's face. She was absolutely hideous…. Hopefully it was the bruises that were at fault for that.

"Get out of here, everyone," Kimi shouted at them. The kids scattered like frightened cats.

Garuru turned to the orange-haired girl on the ground, who was coughing compulsively. "Um… are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm… fine," she wheezed out. "It's just… my sickness." Once her coughing was subdued, she stood up and brushed her skirt off. "Thanks for scaring away the others. They just think it's a little funny to pick on me for it. So I called them losers, because they have nothing better to do than pick on a sick person."

Well, it was fair enough, Garuru had to agree. "That's still kind of… awful."

"I know," the girl said with a shrug. "But there's nothing I can do about it. Besides, I'm going to be hosting a demon soon, anyway, so I'll have a couple of months in Secondary School all to myself. Until then, I suppose this is my life."

"There's always something you can do about it," Garuru told her. "If you keep putting yourself down and telling yourself that this is the way things are, you're never going to amount to your full potential."

"Full potential…. Hmmm…." She gave a wry smile. "I don't think becoming an idol is within my means."

"Anything is within your means," Garuru said. "You just have to not let people push you around. You have to show them that you're worth more than what they think."

The girl listened to Garuru's words. "You think?" she asked. "Well… I was named Kururuko, so that must mean I'm destined for greatness. Either that or I'm destined to be an asshole."

 _Ah. Another kid with a Kululu name_ , thought Garuru. Ever since the Demon King won the Ancient War against the angels nine thousand years ago, it had been popular among humans to name their kids after him. It was still taking a long while for Garuru to get used to it, though.

"Well, thanks anyway, person," she said and hobbled away.

"That was really touching of you to tell her that," Kimi said as they walked back to Goro's house, putting her hand to her chest. "It seems every day I learn something new about the world."

"It was really nothing," Garuru dismissed. He just didn't like turning a blind eye to something he could have easily prevented, even if it was a human that he was helping.

"Still. It was really nice of you." Kimi leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Garuru was a bit confused, but he said nothing of it.

* * *

What Garuru didn't know what that the girl in the street, Kururuko Tsukishima, had taken his words to heart.

"I can't just let people keep pushing me around and taking me for granted," she told herself. "I have to _do_ something with my life." She clenched her fist. "I want to make my mark on the world before my time is up."

And she knew just how to do it.

Since Kururuko had absolutely zero qualms about going where she wasn't supposed to, she marched straight into one of the demon temples and walked up to a priest.

"Get me the scouts for the Demon King's host," she requested. "I have some very important news to share."

"What? Um… all right," they said. "You do know that his next host was already chosen several years ago, correct?"

"Oh," said Kururuko, "don't worry. I know that."

They weren't completely sure what was going on, but this girl seemed like she knew what she was doing, so they went and got who she requested for.

Scouts and trainers came at once, eager to hear what important news this thirteen-year-old had to share. However, when they saw the ugly, scrawny-looking kid, they became confused.

Kururuko thrust out her arms with pride. "Everyone, what you're looking at is the Demon King's next host."

They all scratched their heads. "Um… we already _have_ his next host."

"Yes. It's me." A posh-looking kid stepped out from behind them. "I'm the hero of the world. Not you. _Me_."

"Yes, you're hardly worthy for the grueling task," a trainer told her, laughing.

"You think I'm not worthy?" asked Kururuko. "I'm more than capable. Someone told me recently that anything is within my means. I just have to show people I'm worth more than what they think." She snapped her fingers. "Go ahead, do a background check on me."

They quickly ordered the temple head to get them her file, and they came back with a folder and clipboard. As the scouts and trainers read through her information, grins slowly spread across their faces. They were more than pleased with what they found.

"Well, we'd have to edit the contents of the file a bit, but…" a scout murmured. His voice rose. "Officers, I believe we have found the next host for the Demon King."

"What?" The posh boy gaped in chagrin. "But—but I—"

"Sorry, kid," they told him. "Kururuko's just a better match."

Kururuko beamed.

The other kid growled in anger, rage seeping off of him like steam coming from a boiling pot of water.

These people would pay for casting him aside. They would pay for stripping him of his title as hero of the world.

Shortly after, the kid became a super villain and terrorized the people of the town. He would go down in history one way or another!

However, nobody gave a shit.

* * *

 **If you can remember the two or three paragraphs' worth of Kururuko from the main story, you already know her fate ;)**

 **It's weird, in my head I know the rules of this world forward in back, but actually having to write it all down in story format just looks messy and like too much information. Sorry.**

 **Please do review though, if you're reading, because as you know I love to hear your thoughts.**


	3. As Luck Would Have It

**Naturally there are certain things that take priority over calculus homework**

 **...jk i just don't want to do my calculus homework. Here's the next chapter.**

* * *

Despite what Garuru and Kimi had told each other, they continued to meet up places, because even though they both said they were too busy to get into a relationship, it was still nice to take a break from saving lives, or investigating things for the Demon King.

As the days went by, Garuru was coming to enjoy Kimi's presence more and more. She had a very kind, sophisticated personality, and was funny but also serious when she needed to be. Did he love her? No, he couldn't say that for sure. But she was a pleasant person to have around.

He had lied to her about his work load being quite heavy. In reality, he was simply not interested for two reasons. One, he was a demon and she was a human. If they started something, she'd just die.

More importantly, there was another person that Garuru was… well… somewhat interested in.

It had been back during the Ancient War. Instead of staying by the Demon King's side, because he couldn't ever seem to find where he was, Garuru went out onto the frontlines to fight and protect the soldiers, leading them through combat and all the destructive obstacles that the angels threw at them.

There was one day where he became badly injured. An Angul, a skeleton-like angel that could teleport, had stabbed him in the side with its sharp, pointy arm bone. He ended up in the infirmary, his host body weak from pain and his vision blurry. _It will be all right if I die,_ he had thought to himself. If he died on the human plane, he would just go back to the demon plane until he found another human host. And then this cycle of fighting would begin anew, unless an angel sucked out his demon soul—then he would really die.

As he lay there in the infirmary, a purple-haired demon visited him for several days, tending to his wounds and nursing him back to health. Garuru could still remember the curve of her face, the soothing feeling her eyes gave him, the sound of her voice as she hummed softly to him as his body caused him to drift off to sleep….

He healed slowly, but only because he subconsciously desired to stay in that infirmary with her, being able to touch her cheek as she leaned over him. Later during the war, when the two of them teamed up together against the angels and a strange feeling grew in his heart at the sight of her, he had realized what this feeling was. He had grown to love her.

And although Kimi was a sweet human girl, there was a zero chance that Garuru would develop that same sort of bond with her that he had for his field medic Pururu during the Ancient War. Although the two of them did not become a couple in that time, they did grow to be very good friends. All of their parents were quite pleased, and they expected wedding bells any day now.

But no wedding bells came.

* * *

In the next week, Garuru's work load became very light, and he was able to focus on his fake job of being a contractor. However, things took a bit of a turn when he was walking through the street one day with Kimi had they happened to cross paths with that orange-haired girl, who was now surrounded by personal trainers.

"Oh! It's you," Kururuko recognized. She walked up to Garuru and bowed to him. "I just wanted to thank you for talking some sense into me. Because of your encouraging words, I'm now the next host for the Demon King."

Garuru popped his mouth open. Then he closed it. He opened it again. "That's not a good thing."

"Oh, but it is," said Kururuko. "I'll finally be making my mark on the world—going out with a bang, you could almost say!"

Garuru's human heart sank. What had this poor girl gotten herself into?

Not to mention, Kululu would become enraged with him when he discovered his host had changed and Garuru hadn't told him anything about it.

* * *

Later in the night, Garuru dressed in black and sneaked into a demon temple in the town that carried Kururuko's file.

He knew he was breaking curfew, but the mission was necessary. He found the file on a table. Someone must have left them out before leaving for the day. Garuru quickly snatched the folder and headed outside in the direction of where he knew an underground building was located.

As he walked past many buildings, however, he was unaware of the set of eyes that caught him.

Kimi saw him through the window of the hotel lobby she was reading a book in. _That can't be… Goro?_ she wondered. _But it's past curfew for the town! What could he be doing at this hour?_ She set down her book, tossed a dark jacket over her, and decided to follow him.

Since she kept her distance, Garuru remained unaware of her presence. He kept his pace until he reached the town jail, which he entered through a back door.

 _Goro has special access to the jail?_ thought Kimi. _Wait a second…. It couldn't be…._

She followed him into there, too.

Instead of leading to jail cells, the back entrance actually led to an underground hallway with many doors. Garuru entered through one of them, closing the door behind him. Kimi waited a moment then pressed her ear against it, listening for voices inside.

She could make out two distinct voices, but not the words they were saying.

"Who would be visiting me at this hour?" an old voice asked Garuru. An old man turned around to face him. His eyebrows, beard, and what little head hair he had left was white and gray with age and extended to the floor. He pointed a trembling finger at Garuru. "Ah. Now, remind me which demon you were again?"

"I… was just about to ask the same question myself," said Garuru as he sat down.

The old man began to cry. "Th-that's just too cruel!" Sniffling, he remembered. "You're Garuru, aren't you? It makes enough sense that you would forget about me." He added quietly, "Keroro, on the other hand…. My own friends…."

Garuru plopped his folder down on the table before him. "I have a favor to ask of you, uh…"

"Zeroro."

"Zeroro. Right." Such a forgettable name. "Sorry about that. Anyway, you'll be returning to the demon realm soon, correct?"

The old man, Zeroro, gave a youthful laugh, which sounded odd for a body so old. "That is true. The soul energy left in this human body is running out, and my existence on this plane shall soon expire."

"That's good," said Garuru. "I need you to memorize the contents to this human's file and pass them on to the Demon King."

"What for?" Zeroro asked.

"His host has been switched." Garuru rubbed his neck. "And if he finds out before I tell him, he'll have my head."

"Ah. Very well." Zeroro accepted the file folder and dismissed Garuru.

As Garuru came out of the room, Kimi quickly darted away.

* * *

She confronted him the next morning at his house.

"We need to talk, Goro," she told him. Her face was cast in shadow. "You've been keeping secrets."

 _This is unfortunate_ , Garuru thought. _Which secret did she find out about?_

"Perhaps we could talk about this elsewhere?" he whispered, looking around at all the people who were walking by.

"So it's true," said Kimi.

They entered his house and went into the study. "You're a demon, aren't you?" she asked.

Garuru fell silent with dread. How did she find out?

Kimi seemed to pick up on the worry in his face. "I put the pieces together. How you seem to know everything…. How cold you are to your parents, to me…. I saw you going to the jail last night, taking the back entrance, even though it was past curfew and a regular human shouldn't have been able to have access to the quarters that house the town's assassins!"

Garuru exhaled. Then he said, "I trust you won't be telling anyone."

"Not if you answer me this one question," said Kimi. She eyed him seriously. But her expression soon melted into curiosity. "Which one?"

"…Pardon?"

"Well? Which demon are you?" She folded her arms across her chest.

He looked at her strangely. It wouldn't matter if he told her; she wouldn't recognize the name. But if there was any human he trusted, it was Kimi. "I am known in the demon realm as Garuru, the advisor to the Demon King."

Kimi quickly became flabbergasted. "Wh-WHAT? Garuru? _Garuru?_ As in, Giroro's older _brother_ , Garuru?"

"Um… yes?" Garuru was confused at how red her face was. Was she angry? He didn't understand. "Do you know my brother? He's not very good at blending in with human society, admittedly… so I suppose it's just like him to talk about me."

"No! No!" Kimi waved her hands in front of her face. "Giroro and I used to play together as demon pups. Along with Keroro, and Zeroro…"

"Wait a minute. You're a demon, too?" Garuru was shocked. Thinking back on it, he should have seen the signs. "Which one are _you_?"

"You really don't remember?" she asked. "We—We were a team back in the Ancient War…. I was a field medic on the battlefield."

 _A…. A team?_ Garuru tried to think back to who he had worked with during the Ancient War. Wait a minute…. She couldn't have been…

"…Pururu?" he asked hesitantly.

She grinned. "I knew you'd remember me, Garuru."

For a moment, Garuru was shocked. Then he burst out into laughter.

Pururu started laughing, as well. They both found amusement in the absurdity of the situation.

As Garuru's laughter dimmed down, he set his hand on Pururu's shoulder. "Ah, it's been far too long, Pururu," he said. "How have things been going?"

She smiled at him. "Why don't we talk things over a cup of tea," she suggested.

Happily, the two of them went out together for tea and caught up with what the other had been doing for the last nine thousand years.

"Wow. The Demon King makes you do all that?" Pururu frowned and reached across the table to stroke his hand. "I'm so sorry. What a jerk he is."

"It's a hateful job, but a necessary one," Garuru admitted. "I've been the king's advisor for the past three generations of Demon Kings now." He had to talk in a low voice so only Pururu would be able to hear him.

"That's no reason to keep the job, though," she said to him.

"Trust me," he told her, "without me, who _knows_ what Kululu has in store for demonkind."

Pururu nodded, deciding to agree with him. She had met the Demon King a couple of times, but those instances were enough to learn what he was like.

Realizing her hand was still on his, she blushed and snatched it away. _I should probably change the subject…._

"Just think! Our hosts' parents wanted us to marry!" she giggled. "How strange would _that_ have been?" _Wait. Uh-oh. I shouldn't have switched to that subject after I just took my hand off of his!_

"Pretty strange," Garuru agreed. But he quickly became silent. What _would_ it have been like, being married to Pururu? He couldn't say the thought hadn't popped up in his head before, but even so….

She was the one who had kept him on the human plane during the Ancient War. She was the one he had fallen slightly in love with so long ago.

If he had to marry her to blend into human society… well… he wouldn't have any complaints.

"Actually, to be completely honest," he began, "I'm a bit surprised you're not married already."

"Wh-what?" Pururu looked shocked. "Y-you're not implying that I'm old, are you?"

"That's not what I meant," he assured her. Why would she think she was old? A little under ten millennia's worth of age was nothing to be self-conscious about. Besides, Garuru was still older. "From what I've heard… you just seem to be quite popular in the demon realm."

"Really? I haven't noticed," said Pururu.

"But… Bariri and Shurara…"

"Oh. I turned them down long ago," she said with a smile.

"Ah." He nodded. "Well, what about from your side? I can recall, when we were still pups, Giroro talked to me often about some older demon you seemed to like…. I don't know why he brought it up so much. It was kind of strange. And he giggled when he did it."

Pururu's face turned pink again. _Garuru… could you get any denser!_ she thought. _That crush… that "older demon" I liked…. That was you!_

She took a breath to calm herself. It was true, when she was much younger, she had eyed Garuru from afar with much admiration. As a pup, she had often played pretend, fantasizing that her groom was Garuru. But that was just a silly, childish crush. And it was over now. She was an adult and had grown out of such fantasies.

"Well?" Garuru asked, still awaiting a response.

"Oh." Pururu fidgeted a bit in her seat. "Um… yes. It was true that I did have a bit of a childish crush when I was a demon pup. But those days are over now. I don't like you anymore."

Garuru paused. He gave her a strange look.

"What did I…?" Pururu gasped and quickly covered her mouth. _Ohhhh, dear. I just said that last part out loud, didn't I?_

"It was… me?" he said, squinting his eyes.

Pururu just buried her face in her hands, humiliated at her accidental confession.

"Pururu…" Garuru spoke. He reached over and gently took one of her arms away from her face. "It's all right to harbor feelings for someone, Pururu. You should not be ashamed." He thought for a second, then said to her, "I, myself… held a bit of a fondness for you during the Ancient War."

"What? Really?" Pururu asked. Garuru nodded. Again, her face turned bright red.

For about two full minutes, the two of them sat there in silence, not quite knowing what to say to each other.

Finally, Pururu spoke. "Say… um… do you think it would be all that much of a problem if we just gave into the whims of our hosts' parents and… started something up?" She was looking down at the table as she asked him.

Garuru smiled a little. He had a crooked smile, but Pururu found it a bit charming. He knew that she wasn't suggesting this just to go along with their hosts' parents' whims, of course. "You know, I was just feeling like I wasn't doing enough to blend in with human society."

Pururu released a laugh. "You really don't joke enough, Garuru."

"What?" He was confused at this statement. He wasn't a wet blanket, was he?

"But…" She leaned forward and gave him a small kiss on the nose. "It's awfully precious when you do."


	4. Oops

**A/N: Well, lol it's been a while, so instead of defending myself with more excuses on why I've vanished THIS time I'll just cut to the chase. Here's your new chapter. I'll get to the Hinata House soon because I'm already 7 paragraphs in (cue gasp) as of last week (cue groan). Idk when I'll update Forget-Me-Notebook, but I have some short stories relating to that so I can post those I guess if you guys want?**

* * *

Garuru and Pururu started dating shortly after their conversation. Their relationship was casual and fun-loving, but also perfect, almost as if the universe had thrown up its hands and exclaimed "Well it's about time!"

Really. Several millennia and Pururu had liked him the whole time? Garuru was _ashamed_ of himself. Better late than never, he supposed. As a near-immortal being he had plenty of time to make and mend mistakes. Humans, on the other hand… ha. What pathetic creatures.

In the course of the next few days, Goro's and Kimi's parents were all delighted to see the relationship of their two "kids" undergo immense changes. It was as if something had sparked between them overnight, like they had even known each other from somewhere before. It had hardly been three months when Garuru's brother, Giroro, received a surprising call on the phone of his host's residence.

"Who's calling me?" Giroro asked, picking up the phone. He lived far away from society, so he found it odd that somebody had managed to track him down. Unless…

No. The telemarketers had found him.

"It's Garuru," said his brother. Giroro breathed a sigh of relief. "I apologize that I haven't been able to contact you for awhile. Things have been quite busy, making preparations for the Demon King's hosting."

"Ugh," Giroro groaned. The Demon King was even worse than a telemarketer—seven of them, in fact!

"But I didn't call about that. I called to tell you the news."

"What news?" Giroro listened in closely.

"Well… um… you know your old friend, Pururu?"

"Yes," he responded. Of course Giroro knew Pururu. She was his and Keroro's childhood friend. And one other demon… though he couldn't remember who…. Zabubu? Zoboomafoo? Oh, fiddlesticks.

"We started dating a couple months ago."

"Ah, yes, that's very…." Giroro almost dropped the phone. "Wait, _WHAT_? You—You started dating Pururu?"

"Yes. That is what I just said. Were you not listening, Giroro?"

"I—I just can't believe it, is all," he sputtered. "She still likes you, after all this time? I can't believe it!"

"Neither can I." Garuru paused. "Anyway, we're getting married in four months, so uh, you should come to the wedding."

Giroro didn't have a double-take this time. Instead he just glared heavily into the phone, as if his brother would see this. "You're getting _married_. What else do I need to know that you've only decided to tell me NOW?"

"I'm sorry," Garuru apologized again with that unbroken, calm demeanor that Giroro had always envied. "Things have really been busy. I'm not lying."

Giroro sighed. "Which town? Country?" Garuru told him the names. "Augh. I can't believe this, Garuru. Why now? Why only after thousands and thousands of years? Have you two just, like, _not_ talked since the Ancient War?"

Garuru was silent on the other end.

"Communication is vital to a relationship, big bro," Giroro advised him. "If you—"

"Oh, like you've ever actually _been_ in a relationship before."

Giroro furrowed his eyebrows. "I've—"

"Trust me, Giroro. All you ever do is beat up monsters and play with human weaponry. Remember, I asked you a couple centuries ago if you would marry a human to blend into society if people forced you to? And remember what you said? You said, 'No, that's completely degrading, and besides why would I waste my time getting into relationships if I could fight people instead.' That's exactly what you said."

Giroro growled and hung up on him.

But he came to the wedding, anyway.

* * *

There were so many faces Garuru didn't recognize—or anybody else, for that matter—and so he figured those must be the demons. He only knew a couple demons' addresses and phone numbers to send the invites. They must have spread the word to everyone else he knew.

It was an amusing experience overall. He and Pururu made a game out of "Which demon do you think is THAT one?" based solely on their wedding speeches (vague, fumbling speeches that left Goro's and Kimi's friends and relations scratching their heads and wondering, how did my kid ever meet someone like that and why haven't they ever told me about them?).

Demons typically didn't have the best of luck at these sorts of weddings. In the human realm, everything was pretense.

"Kimi, why don't you introduce us to all your friends at the wedding?" asked Kimi's parents during the after party. "They made some… pretty interesting speeches."

 _Speak for yourself,_ thought Pururu. All her host's parents talked about in their own speeches were how excited they were to get some grandchildren. _Hah! Joke's on her! Garuru and me are demons. We won't be making any babies!_

"All they all friends of yours, Kimi?"

"Well—" She swiveled and gestured to Garuru. "Goro—"

"They're mine too—" Garuru fumbled.

"Mutual friends," they both decided at once.

"Mutual friends?" Goro's father said as he and his wife entered the conversation. "Why, you two haven't even known each other for half a year! How have you managed to meet so many people?"

"Group… dates?" Garuru tried. Pururu tried not to snort in laughter.

"All right. Introduce us," Kimi's mom challenged.

"Right…." Garuru rubbed the back of his neck and led them away. He tried to remember who they identified as whom in his and Pururu's game.

They tracked down a man a little older than Goro but who housed a demon much younger than Garuru. _Taruru,_ he recalled.

"Well… this is… Tim," he said. "Tim, why don't you say hel—"

"Hello! Oh, it's so good to meet you two!" Taruru instantly took hold of each parent's hand at once (amazingly) and shook them vigorously. "Goro and Kimi have told me so much about you. Haven't you guys?"

"That's exactly right," Kimi agreed.

"How wonderful it is to meet the folks who brought these two amazing people into the world! Well, I've got to be on my way to have a staring contest with a bar of soap. My friend says they're really good at staring contests, you know!"

"Is… that so?" Goro's mother forced a laugh.

"See ya!" Taruru saluted. Since he wasn't watching where he was going, he tripped over a kid.

"You two have got some weird friends," Kimi's dad observed.

Garuru and Pururu took their parents to go see meet their next friend, but instead he came to them.

"Wow! Amazing ceremony, you two. So glad I was able to come," said the stranger. He winked at Garuru and Pururu.

"And you are…?" Goro's parents asked him.

"Gen," said the stranger. "A friend of Goro's from work. Right, Goro?"

"Um… right?" said Garuru. _They're probably a demon. Definitely getting demon vibes off this one._

Pururu picked up on his uneasy expression and nudged him in the side. Even though she was a lot better at identifying demons, it was strange that he couldn't recognize his own brother's mannerisms.

"So what do you do, Gen?" asked Goro's mom sweetly.

"For work?"

"Hobby."

"Um… I fight stuff!"

 _Oh, I remember who this is now,_ Garuru realized as he face-palmed. It was Giroro! Only Giroro would consider fighting stuff a pastime.

"Really? That's all you do?"

"Well, I have a cat," Giroro added. "Keeps me company."

"No friends? No family?" Goro's mom raised a brow. "No wife?"

"Not interested."

Goro and Kimi's parents exchanged nervous looks. _Demon alert!_ Behind them, Goro made desperate hand signals. _Not good, Giroro! Make up something!_

"Uh, well, actually I have a fiancée," Giroro quickly covered up, seeing the signals. "Um. Five of them. They live all over the world, though."

Only deadpan expressions greeted him.

"Uh… I have to go."

As Giroro quickly fled, two new strangers, one linking arms with the other, wandered up to the newlyweds. The older one mouthed, "Where's he going?"

Garuru just shrugged.

"Oh, how nice it is to see you!" Pururu smiled. She recognized the older one before Garuru did. "How are you doing?"

"Ah, I'm fine." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Nice to see you two are finally getting hitched! Gen and I were making bets on how long it would take you to get together."

More confused glanced from the couples' parents.

More desperate hand signals.

 _Must be Keroro—Giroro and Pururu's friend_ , Garuru realized. He knew him decently from his missions during the Ancient War—probably the most impressive soldier he'd ever seen. Of course, that was nine thousand years ago, and Keroro hadn't done a single impressive thing since then. Giroro frequently complained about it, so that was how Garuru knew. As for the younger boy possessively clutching Keroro's arm, he wasn't sure who it was.

Suddenly, there was an explosion in the bathroom.

"Yeah, you might want to get some more soap," said the younger boy innocently. "I think Ta—uh, Tim just blew it up."

 _He's definitely a demon if he almost said Taruru's real name,_ thought Garuru.

"Blew up the soap? Oh god, the building's not on fire, is it?" Goro's mom realized. Sure enough, the sprinklers turned on. "This is all your fault!"

The younger boy's pupils shrunk. "HEY, DON'T GO BLAMIN' THINGS ON ME, WOMAN! IT WAS YOUR FAULT FOR ORDERING FLAMMABLE SOAP FOR THIS BUILDING!"

 _Ah. Tamama._ How could Garuru forget? He used to be his delivery boy during the Ancient War until Kululu won him over with some ridiculous task of some sort. He didn't know the full story. All he knew was that he didn't see him around so much anymore.

"My fault? You're saying it's _my_ fault?"

"Yeah! Fight me!"

They fought. Their partners had to drag them away from each other before any blood was shed.

"Ah… well that was a nasty explosion," said another guest who approached, dusting off his pants. "Pretty lucky for you that you had a mechanic on site." He handed a piece of paper to Goro's and Kimi's parents. "Here's the bill… pu, pu, pu, pu, pu."

 _Tororo_ , Pururu and Garuru though. They'd recognize that laugh anywhere.

Beside him, a darker human stepped up. "I wasn't invited to the wedding but I came anyway." He clenched his fist. "I thought for sure that _he_ would be here… but I suppose he has already returned to—" Tororo clamped his hand over his friend's mouth.

 _And that… must be Zoruru,_ thought Garuru. He was another demon who fought with them during the Ancient War and was now bent on assassinating Zeroro for abandoning him during one of their field missions. Also for taking the last popsicle in the storage unit. Okay, mostly the second reason. Unfortunately, Zeroro's host body had recently passed away and returned his soul to the demon realm, and so Zoruru was a little late on things.

Sighing, Goro's mom filled out a check and handed it to Tororo. "I suppose we should thank this mechanic, dear."

"Yes, thank you," said her husband reluctantly.

"Oh, I'm not _just_ a mechanic," said Tororo with a touch of pride. "I'm also a famous writer!"

"You can't be—" Goro's mom glanced back down at the name on the bill.

"That's right. I'm the author of the best-seller _100 Totally Valid Conspiracies about the Demon King_!"

Kimi's father bit his lip. "It wasn't the most compelling of books…."

"What?" Tamama was flabbergasted. "I love it! I own ten copies!"

"Wow! Great to see that you're a fan!"

Tororo and Tamama wandered off, chatting excitedly over their combined hatred for the Demon King. Zoruru followed after.

"It's not very wise to go off badmouthing the Demon King like that…" Kimi's mom murmured.

Garuru rolled his eyes. _Tell me about it. The last time someone questioned Kululu's leadership, he managed to feed their host body to a meat grinder. While they were on a vacation. While Kululu was still in the demon realm. And then sold the meat-grinder to a sausage factory. And tormented that poor demon when they returned to the demon realm. By making them an executive in his castle._ He shuddered. _Now they'll NEVER escape him._

"Um, please excuse my partner's insolence," said Keroro. "You see, our relationship is very _normal_ and _human_ and so that's why we're dating."

Kimi's parents exchanged a look.

"He's a demon, isn't he."

"What?!" Keroro freaked out. "I—I'm not a demon! I'm the most human of humans, ahahahaha!"

"Yeah, he's definitely a demon."

"Kimi, how could you befriend a demon?"

"Oh, but he seems like such a good guy, honey."

"No. We're ashamed of you, Kimi!"

Pururu face-palmed, shaking her head. Some demons were… a lot less subtle than others.

Humiliated, Keroro went and grabbed Tamama by the wrist. "Come on, Tom, let's go get some punch or something."

Tamama cried at being called Tom, for he knew that Keroro was never able to figure out his identity. Not today, not a hundred years ago, not a hundred years before, and so on. But that was another story.

Garuru and Pururu managed to steal away before they had to introduce any more _embarrassingly obvious_ demons to their hosts' parents. Besides, they had each other's company to enjoy. After an entire night of listening to congratulatory speeches they were dying to make out.

* * *

Garuru and Pururu spent the next several months in absolute bliss in their own home away from their hosts' parents. It felt so nice, being able to temporarily settle down, not having to run away constantly from whichever town most recently discovered their demonhood. Marriage was the perfect cover-up.

"Does it ever bother you?" Garuru asked his wife one night as they lay on the roof of their house.

"What does?"

"That we could have had all this several thousands of years ago?" He clasped her hands. "This life, this relationship…."

She smiled at him and shook her head. "Garuru, I don't regret anything at all."

He was mildly hurt, since he sort of regretted his lateness. They could have had this life together so much earlier, and instead they spent all that time fawning after each other without realizing they had the opportunity to close the gap.

Pururu stroked his shoulder. "I'm sorry that you're feeling insecure, Garuru." She kissed him on the cheek. "You love me, don't you?"

"Yes," he confessed.

"Well… I love you too." She squeezed his hand. "And I'm also a bit sorry that it took me so many years to finally admit it to myself. And to you. But I do love you."

They embraced each other.

To demons, human marriage ceremonies were a lot different than demon marriage ceremonies. Marriage on the human realm wasn't technically permanent. Once their host bodies died, they'd return to the demon realm, and poof! No more marriage. On the human realm it was usually only used for cover-ups. Or a ruse for teasing, in Giroro and Keroro's case. To Garuru and Pururu, their wedding was nothing more than poking fun at the humans, sharing an inside joke between the two of them, but their love was much more eternal. In their minds, and in demon society, however, they weren't any closer than a couple who'd been dating for a few months.

In a way, it was a double-edged sword.

* * *

Garuru was shocked to find Pururu crying in the restroom one morning.

"Pururu? Are you all right in there?" He knocked on the door. She didn't give a response to him, so he opened the door and entered.

Pururu was had her hand on her forehead, her elbow propped up on the counter in front of the restroom mirror, with some small device in her hand. Wordlessly, she handed it to Garuru.

"I don't get it. What's the—" Garuru looked down at the device. A pregnancy test? Why? They were demons. There shouldn't have been a—

Then it registered. The little pink "plus."

 _Oh shit,_ he thought, and dropped the marker.

* * *

 **Say good-bye to Kururuko next chapter.**

 **Also it will never be revealed why Tororo hates Kululu in this story. You can make something up in the review I guess.**


	5. Out with a Bang

"What should we do?" Garuru finally asked when Pururu's crying had subsided.

"I don't know," she confessed. "I didn't think it was possible."

"I didn't either."

"We can't go through with it. It's only going to end in misery," she decided.

Garuru nodded, seeing her point. "Fair enough."

"But… at the same time…." She hugged herself, then stood up. "I don't know. I need to think."

"Um… do you want to think… together?"

"No. I think I need to think by myself for a bit," she told him with a kiss. "Then we can talk."

* * *

After many days of speculation, Pururu finally brought it up again.

"All right. I've thought about it."

"Yeah?"

"I…" She paused, taking a breath. "I think we should have the baby."

"What? Really?"

Pururu had always laughed about how silly it was that their host parents wanted them to breed, so this took Garuru by surprise. What compelled her to give that answer?

"Yeah. Really," she said. "I know you probably think I'm out of my mind—"

"Not particularly," he answered. "I don't… I don't oppose it all that much. I enjoy children, personally. I wouldn't mind having them with you."

Pururu groaned. "There are so many things that could go wrong…. No. What was I thinking. This is absurd!"

"You've never wanted kids?" he asked. "Not even a little?"

"No… it's not that I don't like kids…." Pururu looked off to the side.

"You just don't think you're ready."

"No…."

"You _don't_ want any?"

"No. I do." She sighed. "I always wanted a family. And… I was hoping to put them off for a couple more millennia, but…."

"Well, if you're not ready…."

"No. Wait." Pururu stopped him. "What I was going to say was… I _am_ ready. More ready than ever, probably."

Garuru wasn't sure what she meant, so she explained it to him.

"It takes forever to have kids on the demon realm, Garuru. And it's so stressful out there…. I really do like the human realm much better. If I had to have kids, I'd want them to live here."

"I understand," he nodded. The human realm was a beautiful world.

"It would be a lot harder to raise kids on the demon realm, too…. Twice as many hosts as usual to just carry the pup… and then none at all for several millennia to stay and nurse it."

All of that was true. Garuru recalled several demon mothers passing away because they hadn't hosted enough during their pregnancies, and so they passed away from starvation. Demons weren't completely immortal, after all. They could starve, die from old age, die in the human realm, or die by their ruler's—Kululu's—hand.

"Not to mention the lack of other demon pups that the kid would be able to play with," she noted. "It's a miracle that even Keroro, Giroro, Zeroro and I are roughly the same age." She clenched her fist, affirming her decision. "If I want kids, then now is truly the best time."

"You're absolutely right, Pururu," Garuru agreed. He'd never actually been against having kids on the human realm, but he wanted to support his wife. Kids were cute. He was excited to be a dad. He just didn't know why she had been crying so much if she wanted to have a family after all. "So we're going to do this, then?"

"Yeah." She smiled, wrapping her arm around his back. "We're going to do this."

Both of them had no idea what they had just gotten into.

* * *

They named the kid Pulala—a demon name, sure, but what human would be able to tell? There were a bunch of kids named after demons, anyway. Nobody would give a damn.

She was a sweet kid, playful and daring, although admittedly a bit more daring in the "I'm going to stick my finger in this electrical plug" department rather than the "I'm going to change society" department. She was just an infant. They'd give her time.

Two years later they had a second child, which they named Jun. They adored their children and their children adored them. Pururu was right that this would be the best time to have kids.

One day as Pururu was out at work and Garuru watched his kids play together on the ground, a thought occurred to him. Was this what it was like to be human? This simple, blissful life, sheltered in safety by the town and by society, undisturbed by all other forces? To enjoy the small lifespan you were dealt? Grow up, start a family, retire, and then—bam—you're dead? To not have to worry about where you'll get your next host or what they'll be like, to not have to worry about taking a sixteen-year-old's life?

The life of a human was truly an easy one.

For a while, things seemed perfect. Goro and Kimi's parents visited often and suspected nothing of the sort that their kids were demons. Giroro visited often, as well, but he was quickly saddened by one fact.

"What? Why won't you let Pulala and Jun call me 'uncle?' " he asked.

"Well…" Garuru trailed off. "We're not exactly supposed to let the kids grow up knowing that you're their uncle. According to them, you and I have no relation whatsoever. You're just a friend from work who visits sometimes."

Giroro was stunned. "So…. So… these kids are fully human, then…."

He looked at his brother's kids with sadness as they played innocently and blissfully. What had his brother been thinking? If he'd really wanted kids, he could have just waited until the soul energy ran out for his and Pururu's host bodies and they returned to the demon realm. But because the kids were humans… they'd never grow up knowing who their parents really were. And what happened when they died? Oh, god, what would happen when they died?

Giroro couldn't bear to see his nephew and niece any longer. He had to leave at once, disgusted at his brother's horrible mistake.

"Why did Uncle Giroro go?" Garuru's two-year-old, Pulala, asked him.

Garuru just shook his head. It was too late; she had already taken to calling him "uncle." "I don't know, sweetie," he told her. "I guess he just had something to do."

* * *

It wasn't even a full month when the next surprise greeted their household.

The door didn't even ring. Their guest just barged right into the house, startling both Garuru and Pururu, who were off from work at that time.

It was Kururuko. She looked a bit different this time, slightly older, and with a more menacing demeanor.

"Kururuko!" said Pururu. She tried not to focus on the fact that the girl had totally trespassed into their house. "How have you been doing?"

Instead of answering, Kururuko plopped herself down onto their sofa and propped her legs up on a table. "Glad to see me, eggplant?"

Garuru frowned. He's recognize that delighted sneer anywhere. "Hosting process went without a hitch, I assume, Kululu?"

"Without a hitch? Ku ku ku! You can say _that_ again!" He tucked Kururuko's arms behind her head. "I swear, those humans are practically worshipping me! Do you even know what this host is _like_?"

Garuru opened his mouth to answer, but Kululu cut him off.

"Of course you don't. No one does! She hardly ever speaks to anyone anymore, I'm in so much control. You know what the first thing she said to me was?" Now he tried to imitate Kururuko's way of speaking, which wasn't too hard, since he already had her voice. " 'Don't worry, your highness. I'm not looking for a fight. I'll allow you full control of my body, and I just want one thing in return.' " He grinned. "You know what that was? The kid just wants to be an idol! _This_ kid." He gestured to himself, Kururuko. "Ku. This kid is even uglier than _me_."

"Oh, I beg to differ…" Pururu muttered under her breath. Kululu was a pretty ugly demon. And sure, Kururuko hadn't been so easy on the eyes before. But with Kululu's trademark expression slapped on the girl's face, _now_ she looked downright repulsive.

Garuru let out a sigh. "Just cut to the chase. What did you come here for, Kululu?"

"Me? Ku ku ku. I dunno. Got nothing to _do_ right now. So I thought I'd track you down and drop you a visit," he answered. "Let you see this kid as herself before she becomes a _star_ with the Demon King's help. Ku ku ku!"

Garuru frowned deeply. "There must be a catch for the poor girl. She so genuinely believes that you're going to make her famous that she's willing enough to give up most of her control for the last two years of her life…." It was generally a given fact that the Demon King's hosts never won the Demon Fight after their two years of hosting. "Well, Kululu? What's the catch?"

"The _catch_ ," said Kululu with a sickening smirk, "is the best catch in history. Combine _my_ power as the Demon King and Kururuko's imminent popularity as an idol…. Who could think of a better way to reel in all the ladies? Kuuuu, ku ku ku!"

It was a despicable motivation. And it was just like him. But the Demon King was a huge flirt, and the only problem was that he could never win any ladies, because he was a jerk and also had a bad haircut, at least in the demon realm.

Kululu started speaking again. "Ku ku ku. Lemme just say, if there was ever a more perfect—"

"Daddy, who's that?" Garuru's two-year-old walked into the room, along with his infant brother, who crawled along beside her.

Kururuko's heart practically lurched when Kululu saw them. "Ku. Wh-what are _those_?" he asked.

"These are… my kids," Garuru said, choosing his words carefully in front of Pulala. But inside him, rage welled. He didn't want another demon telling him what he could and couldn't do with his life. Giroro had been heartbreaking enough. Garuru caught his breath, ready for the ridicule Kululu had in store for him… or, even worse, an arbitrary order for him to leave them and return to the demon realm.

Pulala and Jun came forward slightly. Kululu got to his feet at once, backing away from them like they might combust at any time. "Ku ku. Ku ku ku ku. They're—I—I can't even—" He couldn't find the words. "Can't fathom why a demon like you would stoop to such a thing! Ku ku ku. Get your gross brats out of my presence."

Garuru filled with rage. He threw the front door open and pointed outside, yelling, "Get your _presence_ out of _my_ house!"

"Ku. I was going to leave anyway," Kululu muttered with utter distaste. He threw the kids one last disgusted look before exiting.

"I would have torn his eyes out if it didn't harm that poor girl," Pururu growled.

"Mommy, who was that?" Pururu asked, tugging on her mother's skirt.

Pururu sighed, trying to calm herself. She picked up her daughter and stroked her hair. "It was someone very bad, honey. But he's gone now."

* * *

Kululu and Kururuko were living the high life.

Kururuko got everything she wanted. She was an idol, people looked up to her, she was making her mark on the world…. And in return, Kululu got to constantly be a jerk and flirt with girls.

Fascinatingly, Kururuko's fans weren't repelled by the Demon King's jerky nature. Instead she just reeled in more of them. Why? They weren't sure. Everyone hated Kululu, but at the same time, they also sort of bowed down in fear to him due to all his power and his inventions.

Kululu could barely go anywhere without having girls completely swarm him nowadays. It was pretty great. But even at tech fairs, it seemed a bit much.

At tech fairs, his main goal was to invent things, but of course he was more than happy to spend time with all of Kururuko's and his devoted fans.

"Don't worry, ladies," Kululu said to all the girls as he pushed his machine parts and junk under a few tables. "You'll all get a chance to spend time with me, the Demon King. Ku ku ku ku."

The crowd of girls squealed happily.

As Kululu met with each and every person, and just as quickly pushed them away like the dismissive jerk he was, a thought occurred to him.

"Ku. Hey Kururuko, how come you're so spineless?" he asked his host mentally. That was the way demons communicated with their teenage hosts.

" _I'm not spineless_ ," Kururuko answered.

"Course you are," he said. "You barely _ever_ take back the body, unless it's for one of your lame concerts. Ku ku ku. So how come you're willing to let me get away with totally ruining your reputation?"

" _Oh, I don't know_ ," Kururuko told him. " _I'm just a gal of very few desires. You made me famous, so in return I let you have complete control over my body for an extra two years_."

"Really. There must be a catch," said Kululu.

" _There is none. The only one here who comes up with 'catches' is you, Kululu_ ," Kururuko teased.

"That's 'cause I _am_ a catch."

Kururuko didn't want to admit it, but the amount of women lurking around them said otherwise.

" _If you're such a 'catch,' why don't you have any friends?_ " she asked.

"Oh, I do too have friends." Kululu thought a moment. He supposed bringing to life a robotic demon he engineered as a young demon pup didn't count. Plus, it had left him eventually. Just like everyone else in his life. "As the Demon King I don't require companionship," he corrected himself.

" _That's basically you just saying you can't make friends. Aww! That's so sad!_ " said Kururuko.

"Tch… annoying nitwit."

" _Right. Of course. Sorry, your highness. I'll shut up now_ ," she laughed.

"Mr. Demon King, why are you so quiet?" one of the girls by his side asked, leaning over him. Her lips brushed by Kururuko's ear, almost seductively.

" _Nooooo, Kululu, don't kiss her,_ " Kururuko pleaded with very little emotion.

Kululu did nothing of the sort. "Quit it, I'm talking to my host," he snapped at her. Taking another look at her, he waved his hand. "And stop hanging so close to me. Ecch. You smell like seaweed."

The girl, saddened, stood up and walked off.

" _Wh-what? How come you didn't kiss her, Kululu? That was the perfect opportunity for a flirt like you!_ " Kururuko sounded more worked up than she should have been. " _I'll never get the things that you do. You were fine with flirting with her just a minute ago. You shouldn't have told her off._ "

"Humans aren't worth my time," Kululu told her hypocritically. Kururuko said nothing in response to this. She just remained silent.

As the woman was walking away, Kululu's eyes lowered and trained on her butt.

 _Wait a second…. I'm not doing that,_ thought Kululu. Now that he thought about it, his eyes had been wandering to an awful lot of chests and posteriors lately on his admirers. But… he hadn't been making that happen?

A thought crossed Kululu's mind. He frowned.

 _…Goddamnit, Kururuko._

* * *

When Kururuko was about seventeen and a half, she and Kululu finally had their scheduled Demon Fight. Sure enough, Kururuko didn't put up even the slightest bit of a fight. She allowed Kululu to completely do away with her and tear out her soul.

As she wheezed for air, barely dead and floating in the mind realm that linked their two consciences, all she did was give him one soft smile. "Please let my parents know that I've succeeded," she told him. "And tell them I love them."

"Of course," Kululu said with a deceitful grin.

"And one last thing…" she added. A small smirk crossed her lips. "Good luck."

 _…Good luck?_ "Wait, what do you mean?" he asked.

But she was already dead. Her form vanished from the mind realm. Kururuko, the original Kururuko, was now no more.

* * *

Kululu enjoyed being by himself for awhile. He worked on his inventions to bring the world to a new age of technology. This week's project would be a mobilized telephone. He wasn't sure how popular it would become; he just knew he had to start working on it quickly before someone else stole the idea.

After a while he remembered that Kururuko's parents were a thing, and so he decided to drop by and deliver the wonderful news about their daughter.

"Kururuko! It's you!" her mother said when she opened the door and saw what seemed to be her daughter.

Kululu gave a malicious grin. "You know that I'm not _really_ Kururuko," he spoke. "I've never lost a Demon Fight against a human since I became king."

Kururuko's mother and father cried together for a moment. Then her mother wiped away her tears and said, "I'm so proud of my little girl…. She made her mark on the world, just like she wanted."

"Um, didn't you hear me? Kururuko's _dead_. I tore out her soul. With my teeth," Kululu clarified.

Her mother just kept crying in happiness. "A true hero of the world."

Kululu gave a disgruntled scoff and began to walk away from the door.

"She never told you, did she?" Kururuko's father called from behind him. "She was quite clever, our little girl."

 _Told me… Told me what?_ thought Kululu. A flicker of panic ignited in him. He quickly stuffed it down. These humans were spreading lies. He was the Demon King! What could there be that he didn't know about? There was no weird secret that Kururuko had been hiding. Her parents were just trying to scare him.

A day later, the coughing fits began.

* * *

Garuru and Pururu loved their two little kids. Pulala, even though she was only four now, loved to play with other children. Jun was a quiet, but very obedient, son.

It was strange, having human children. The grew up so much faster than demon pups. But as Garuru and Pururu watched them grow, time seemed to slow down for them. Their children became the light of their lives.

As the months passed and his kids were starting to grow older and understand things better, the orange-haired stranger from a few years back showed up at their house again.

"K-Kululu?" Garuru asked in shock when he took in the sight of the person at their door.

It was evident that he was _not_ doing well in Kururuko's body. A blanket was wrapped tightly over his shoulders and his back had a painful slouch to it. His eyes seemed to have this hollow look in them, and his cheekbones stuck out drastically.

"Let me in," Kululu murmured. His voice sounded so awful that Garuru and Pururu had no choice but to let him.

"Mommy, why's the strange person in here again?" Pulala asked.

Worriedly, Pururu exchanged a look with her husband and took the kids out of the room. If Kululu was here, it was likely that it was for some demon-related matter—such matters that Pulala and Jun, being humans, shouldn't listen to.

When she came back into the room, Kululu was in the middle of a painful coughing fit. Garuru and Pururu both winced. It sounded like someone had taken a chainsaw to his lungs.

"Please," Kululu finally wheezed out. "Pururu… you're a healing demon. You have to heal me."

"Why?" Pururu asked, furrowing her brow. From the looks of it, Kululu had just neglected to take proper care of his host body. Didn't he know? Humans were delicate!

"The humans… didn't tell me—" He was cut off by another coughing fit. "—about the sickness."

"Um… okay," said Garuru.

He went on talking. "Kururuko… they chose her as my host because everyone knew she only had a couple years left to live. The training that she underwent…. It wasn't how to deal with me, but how to hide her terminal illness." Another coughing fit. "The hospital says that ever since I killed her, they threw away all her drugs." He clutched the blanket around his shoulders. "But they haven't! I know they haven't! They just want me to die, so I'll go back to the human plane for another thousand years and be out of their hair!"

Pururu and Garuru exchanged a look with each other. They really couldn't blame them.

"Please… you two…. They told me I only have half a year left…." He reached a trembling, bony hand toward them. "You have to do something. You have to heal me."

Garuru's sternness took over. He had spent four years raising kids now, and Kululu was acting no different from one. "So, what? So you can go on with your time on the human plane, jerking around humans, flirting with women, and insulting infants? I don't think so."

A frightened look arose in Kululu's eyes.

"You have quite the nerve, asking for favors from us," Pururu agreed.

"So get out of our house," Garuru shouted at him, narrowing his eyes, "before I have to reschedule your return to the demon plane for an even _earlier_ date."

Kululu glowered at him. "Consider yourself lucky that I'm not strong enough at the moment to electrocute you," he told him. "Otherwise I'd roast your ass to a burnt—" He was cut off by another coughing fit.

Kululu had no choice but to leave at that point. He had to go get what little meds he had left.

They didn't see him again after that. Everyone had just silently assumed that the Demon King's host body had died by then. It couldn't have lasted all that much longer.

In actuality, as Kululu's time dwindled more and more, he settled into a chair in the library of his house on the human plane, waiting for death to take his body as he stared at the ceiling and quietly murmured the words, "I'm sorry."

* * *

 **A/N: Lol yes I recycle character names because I am lazy and cannot come up with good kid names for the life of me. That's why there's a Pulala in Forget-Me-Notebook too. Likewise I think there are maybe 4 different "Teri"s floating around on FFnet? I can't remember.**


	6. Lobster Nest

Garuru tried not to cry as he fastened the bow on his daughter's robes.

"I just want you to know," he told her through his tears, "that your mother and I are very proud of you—"

"Seventeenth time, now, Dad!" Pulala laughed.

"What? When did you start counting?"

"A month ago." She stuck out her tongue playfully.

It was her fourteenth birthday today. Garuru and Pururu were preparing her in the ceremonial robes. She would leave them today to host her demon.

Garuru wiped away a tear. "I just… I can't… My little girl's growing up."

" _Ugh_!" she groaned.

"Now remember, even if you get a strong demon after all, don't let them exploit you," Pururu warned her.

Pulala didn't know what she meant by that but shrugged anyway. "Don't worry, it'll be a strong one. I didn't want a weak demon. That would be lame."

Garuru knit his brows. "Well… it isn't a matter of weakness as it is…. Uh…."

He and Pururu exchanged a concerned look. As per human law, they weren't allowed to tell their kids any secrets behind the Demon Fight. Kids weren't supposed to know that there was a chance they wouldn't live past their sixteenth birthday. Garuru and Pururu had talked it over and decided they weren't all worried about Pulala—she was a fighter—but as is the nature of parents, the clock was ticking and they become worried for their girl anyway.

"Well… whatever," said Garuru, giving her a pat on the shoulder. "You just kick that demon's butt."

"Um, sure, I guess?" she agreed, not fully knowing what he meant.

"Just remember," Garuru added, "you won't earn your place in this world unless—"

"—unless you fight for it, yeah, I know," she said with a giggle. Her dad said it all the time; she knew all her dad's catchphrases and all her mom's favorite songs by heart. The amount inside jokes among them was endless.

The door opened and her twelve-year-old brother Jun came in carrying a small handful of hairpins.

"Thank you, Jun." Pururu took one of them to place in Pulala's hair and stuck the others in her mouth.

Jun looked away, avoiding his sister's gaze. Then he squeezed her tightly.

"Jun!" Pulala exclaimed. Was he crying? He wasn't crying, was he?

He was. "I'm gonna miss you, sis," he murmured into his robes. "Come back soon."

She stroked his hair. "I'll be back for the Victory Festivals, Jun. You'll see me. Don't worry."

"Can I come with to the Possession, Mom?" Jun asked.

"No, honey." She bit her lip. "Unfortunately, you have to stay here…. Temple rules."

" _Please_?" he whined.

She shook her head.

His shoulders slumped. "Aww." He pulled something out from behind his back. "I made a card for you, sis," he told her.

Pulala opened the birthday card. "Oh. This is so sweet, Jun."

"And here's our present." Garuru handed her a photo.

"A piece of paper?" she asked, looking at it.

"Well, we had to leave it at your new school…. Couldn't really give it to you here." He rubbed the back of her neck.

Pulala gasped when she realized what the photo was. "A new bike! Yes!" She hugged Garuru. "ThankyouthankyouthankyouDad!"

He pulled her off before she choked him. "We'd better hurry over to the temple now."

She nodded, and the three of them departed, leaving Jun behind.

* * *

After the ceremony, Pulala was immediately taken away to her new school, where she started setting up in her dorm room. The temple administrators advised her to spend the rest of the day getting to know her demon instead of talking to other kids at the school.

"So, your name is Urere, right?" she asked the demon in her head. On her thirteenth birthday, her parents had taken her to the city's temple, where she sorted through hundreds and hundreds of files about all sorts of different eligible demons. Some had illustrations, others had extensive bios. Something stood out to her about Urere. He seemed like a very friendly demon. Pulala had a tough personality herself, and so she knew that if she was paired up with a tough demon, they would only butt heads. She didn't want that. In these next two years, cooperation was key. And something in her gut had told her that Urere and her would be a perfect team together.

" _Correct_ ," Urere mentally answered her. Pulala had been told about the telepathic link demons had with their hosts.

She focused on what she wanted to say and managed to ask him mentally. "So, um… what do you like to do?"

" _I'm a businessman_ ," he answered.

"Businessman? There can't be all that much business in the demon realm…."

" _Yeah. There really isn't_ ," said Urere. " _But I plan. I make deals with other demons. I'm the most successful demon in history. I set up my company to help other demons who can't take very many hosts for whatever reason_."

Pulala thought a second. "Like the Demon King?"

" _Haha, no. Not him. He's an asshole. Everyone knows that_."

She still thought it was so nice that Urere was such a helpful guy.

* * *

Urere and Pulala bonded quickly. She was right that they would work together so well. With her hard-working attitude and Urere's natural ability for success, she managed to ace all her projects. During the Victory Festival, a global holiday that celebrated the triumph of the Ancient War, she and Urere helped their class make the most impressive booth.

They were a popular team. Pulala had underclassmen and classmates alike constantly coming to her and Urere for homework help, advice, or just to hang out with. Pulala liked making friends and meeting so many people, but sometimes she felt as if she was using Urere's popularity for her own benefit. It gave her a sick kind of feeling, exploiting somebody. She didn't like to think of herself as the manipulative type.

Of course, when it won her dates, she didn't argue as much.

At the end of their first year together, Pulala knew that Urere was someone she could trust. She almost didn't want to part with him, but she knew that she'd have to in another year.

A few months later, Garuru and Pururu were met with their own problems. Jun had just turned 13 and it was time for him to start thinking about the demon he wanted.

They walked down to the city temple, where councilmen and temple administrators sat waiting.

Pururu nudged him. "Go on. Don't be shy."

"Um… uh… I'm here to look at demons," he said.

The temple administrators, recognizing him, began sorting through their files of various humans and eventually pulled Jun's out. He handed it to a councilman, who sniffed and positioned a pair of reading glasses over his nose.

"I—I don't exactly know how to do this…" Jun admitted.

"Let's see… no health concerns… no criminal records." The councilman looked up at him. "What are your hobbies, kid?"

"Uh…."

"Play any sports? Draw?" He glanced down at the file. "Seems you're very studious."

"I… I guess so."

"You serious about any careers? Any dreams?"

Jun shook his head. "I—I'm not sure."

"Lozario, do a search," the councilman said to a temple administrator. She quickly typed some keywords into a computer. Then she turned the screen toward him and an extremely long list of names were generated.

"New system," she told Garuru and Pururu with a quick laugh. "Feel free to look at whoever you want, Jun," she offered. "Whoever you want is yours. Not many of them will be eligible, though. We'll let you know about a month before your fourteenth birthday if we have to switch the demon."

Jun nodded then quickly delved into the records of the demons that showed up on his list. None of them were too thorough, so he didn't have much to go off of. If he was lucky, the file included an artist's representation of the demon. If he was even luckier, the demon's bio included their interests and their personality type.

Exasperated and confused at the system, Jun finally settled on a file and turned the screen back to the temple administrator.

"Hm. Interesting choice," she noted, "although I can see the similarities between you two. Are you sure you want to choose Garuru?"

Garuru and Pururu nearly fell over in surprise. Of all the demons Jun had to choose, why had it been his own dad?!

Garuru wanted to shout, to say that Garuru wasn't eligible right now, but he knew that if he did, he would risk exposing himself as a demon—or at least raise suspicion among the humans that the Demon King's advisor lurked among them.

Exchanging a worried look with Pururu, he finally realized what he had to do. It would still be risky, but it was better than doing nothing. "No, Jun," he spoke. "I forbid you from choosing Garuru."

"What? How come?" Jun asked.

"You see…" Garuru mustered all his experience from watching his teenage hosts in their drama classes. "…son, Garuru was _my_ demon."

"What? Really?" Jun gasped.

"Plot twist," said one of the temple administrators.

"Yes. Really. And it was an awful experience. It turned out that he worked for the Demon King. Having spent so much time around him, it turned him into an annoying jerk." Next to him, Pururu struggled not to giggle.

"Oh." Jun made a face and reached for the keyboard.

Garuru was relieved that he had saved his son from an embarrassing experience. Unfortunately, if the temple administrators discovered that your chosen demon wasn't actually eligible, you were selected a random one. And so forth until the temple administrators received word that a demon _was_ eligible for possession. What they told kids? "They're out on vacation, honey. On some beach in the demon realm." Not that they were living as a fellow adult.

Garuru didn't want to imagine what it would have been like for him to possess his own son, not like they'd force him to leave the human plane. So one second, dad would be dead, and then…. The poor kid would never get away with anything.

* * *

Pulala was nearing her sixteenth birthday and she was just starting to accept the fact that she and Urere would have to part. It had been a good experience, the two of them—biking around in parks, talking about their lives, getting to know each other, and learning more about each other's worlds.

When the clock struck twelve, signaling her sixteenth birthday, Pulala was taken to the city's temple, where she would be expelled of Urere.

"It's going to be sad, saying goodbye," she told him mentally as the temple administrators sat her down in a chair in a special room. "We've gotten to know each other so well."

" _Yes_ ," Urere agreed.

"I hope your friends and family are happy to see you again…." She stopped. "Hey, why are you strapping me down?" she asked the temple administrators.

"It's time for your Demon Fight, dear."

"Wait, my what?" Pulala's heart began to pound. She'd never heard anything of this.

"Sorry. Contract rules. Your demon will explain the rules to you now…."

All of a sudden, Pulala was unwittingly sucked into the mind realm she often saw Urere in.

"Urere, what's going on?" she demanded. "Please explain!"

"Oh, the Demon Fight? Sure," he agreed. "The rules are simple. You grab my horns and rip off my head, you win. The body's all yours. No more Urere. I rip out your soul, I _win_. And… well… you're kaput."

 _What?_ thought Pulala. _N-no! This can't be true. He has to be lying! …Right? We couldn't have spent all these years learning about each other… just for it to end like this!_ She tried to find her voice. "I—I thought you were my friend, Urere."

He chuckled. "Sorry. That's the way it has to go." He pulled out a list from out of nowhere. "Now, I don't really prefer to rip open humans' chests—it's rather unclean if you ask me—so I've prepared a plan instead…. When I reach the end of this list, I'll clap my hands seven times, and you'll sing a bee-bop tune. Meanwhile outside, several birds will make a giant nest, which will hatch a very small lobster. That lobster will make its way into the grocery store and then the prime minister will dance a jig. Then your soul will be in my hands."

 _Oh no! It's a flawless plan!_ Pulala realized with terror. She was frozen in place—she couldn't even move. Then Urere started to clap his hands…

* * *

Garuru, Pururu, and Jun stood tensely in the living room, twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the sound of a knock.

At last, it came! Pururu dashed to the door and swung it open. There were the temple administrators carrying suitcases and a bike, and before them stood…

"Pulala!" Pururu attacked her daughter in hugs and kisses. "I'm so glad you're doing all right. How are you? A-are you doing all right? Here, let me check your vitals—"

"I'm fine, Mom," Pulala giggled. She released a huff of air. "I was—I was so scared when they told me what was going to happen…. I didn't know what to do."

" _What_ was going to happen?" Jun asked.

Garuru and Pururu exchanged a look and Garuru led him away.

"We'll leave these here, ma'am," said the temple administrators, dropping her luggage in the hallway before taking their leave.

"Yes. Thank you!" Pururu called to them. She returned her focus to her daughter as Garuru returned. "Now. How did it go?"

"Terrifying!" she whispered. "I thought I would die for sure. Urere told me that he was gonna, like, rip out my soul, and so I was all like 'what the angel feathers!' and—"

"Watch your language, young lady," Garuru chastised.

"Honey." Pururu cocked a brow at him.

"Sorry." He rubbed his neck and leaned down to give his daughter a hug. "I'm just… glad to see that you're all right, Pulala." He sighed and a smile formed across his lips. "Can't earn your place in this world unless you fight for it, yeah? And you've earned it."

Pulala laughed. "That's a corny way to look at it. But yeah. I'm just glad it's all over."

Pururu narrowed her eyes. "Yes, and you have quite a lot of unpacking to do," she reminded her.

"Um… no I don't! I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do. Go wash up first if you must. I know you've had a long day. You can tell us all _everything_ later."

Pulala groaned and trudged off.

"Let's find her music," said Pururu.

"What? Why?"

"Because it's annoying and loud and I want to throw it out."

Garuru wasn't sure why she wanted to do this, but they went threw her stuff and hid all her music.

Slowly, he started to catch on. "I'm going to fill her room with rubber ducks."

"I'll take down all her posters."

The goal: See if she noticed.

* * *

Garuru and Pururu followed her into her bedroom when she stepped inside.

"You didn't change anything around while I was gone, did you?" she teased.

"No," Pururu told her sweetly. "Jun went in a couple of times to fetch some of his books he loaned you."

"Ah, okay," she said.

"But… he couldn't find _50 Tales from Beneath a Boathouse_ ," Garuru added.

"Oh." Pulala scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Can't remember where I left that one."

"I see. Come to think of it, you might have left it with Carla. Your friend from Primary School."

"Uh-oh," said Pulala.

"Yeah. Uh-oh indeed," Garuru agreed. "Because she moved away three years ago."

Pulala shrugged. "I—I'm sorry for losing the book, Da—"

"It doesn't exist."

Pulala paled.

"Neither does Carla. Or these rubber ducks in your room two years ago. And all your music and posters are gone. You haven't even noticed," he growled.

Pururu turned away, her mouth over her hand as she stifled her tears.

"Also, for the record, that 'corny' phrase I said earlier is one you're familiar with a hundred times over." He drew a deep breath and summoned a gun, pointing it directly at her. "Get out of my house, Urere!"

"What?" Pulala gasped, focusing on the gun. "Dad, you can't—What are you—What?"

"You think I don't know?" The gun shook in his hands. The person before him looked so much like her. "You think I don't know my own daughter, Urere?"

"Dad, I'm _not Urere!_ "

"Humans, they're much more gullible, you know, but not me!" he yelled at Pulala. "I _am_ a demon! I think I would know the difference between my own daughter and one!"

Beneath him, Pulala trembled for a second, but quickly dropped the act. "There really is no fooling you, Garuru, is there?"

"No. No there isn't." The words came out choked, strained, and devastated. Garuru lowered the gun. He couldn't even threaten Urere, not when he looked exactly like Pulala.

"Shame. I've met with success in everything I've done. But I guess a parent's love for their child isn't something I can beat." Pulala—no, Urere—walked past him toward the doorway. "I'll leave, Garuru. But don't get too attached to this life on the human realm. It doesn't last forever, you know."

Garuru sat down on his daughter's bed, covering his face. "Get out," he ordered.

Urere nodded, understanding, and departed.

Pururu collapsed against the wall in sobs.

* * *

 **A/N: Only 1 more chapter after this I promise**

 **And I guess this wasn't going to be 15k words max after all whoops**


	7. To Be Human

**A/N: Last chapter yaaaay**

* * *

The house was quiet the rest of that evening. Everyone ate wordlessly, suspense filling the air.

Finally, Jun broke the silence. "Mom, Dad? Um… why did you throw sis out?"

Pururu inhaled. "That… wasn't your sister…." The last few words weren't even audible as she spoke them. One glance between Garuru and her and he shook his head.

"Wasn't my what?" asked Jun.

Garuru slapped his dishes down on the table, standing up. "I'm going for a walk."

Pururu gasped, covering her mouth. She was starting to cry again.

"What's going on?" asked Jun.

They were too devastated to give him an answer.

* * *

It was past curfew but Garuru didn't care. It wasn't like he was actually going for a walk. He just slumped against the side of his house and cried.

A couple nights later, after everything had sunken in and the shock had settled for both of them, he met Pururu at the top of the roof. She was staring out into space, her cheeks cracked with dried tears.

Garuru sat down beside her and drew her body close to his. They both inhaled.

"I thought for sure she'd win," Pururu murmured. "Our little girl…. She was always so tough. I—I didn't even think to worry."

"I'm just as astonished as you are," Garuru told her softly. He inhaled sharply and gripped the sides of his head. "God—we should have never gone through with it. We should have never had children!"

"Garuru!" Pururu yelled. "Don't say that."

"She's dead, Pururu!" Garuru gripped her, the sobs overtaking him once more as he tucked his head over her shoulder. "Pulala's dead. Urere _killed_ her. She's never coming back."

Pururu clutched his arms, knowing that now was not the time to say anything.

They'd seen death before. They'd both been the cause of it before. But never before had someone close to them died, someone who they knew all their life, who they loved dearly….

Their own daughter.

 _God._

"It wasn't our fault," Pururu whispered to him. "It was the Contract. The Nishizawa Contract took her away."

"Yes," Garuru nodded. Pulala was dead. They couldn't mourn her. They couldn't even hold a public funeral for her. Everyone else thought she was alive. It was all because of the Nishizawa Contract.

Of course, it wasn't.

The same thought floated through both their heads: that this was the price of humanity. This was karma. Thousands, perhaps millions of times before, they had taken the lives of teens, all in the exact same way their own daughter was taken from them.

The fault was all theirs—a cruel irony they didn't want to admit. They should never have chosen to play human. Because it wasn't easy, being human.

And it wasn't even just them.

* * *

"Cut the bullshit."

Garuru and Pururu flinched at their son's language during breakfast.

"Jun," Garuru said sternly.

"Where's my sister."

Garuru and Pururu exchanged a worried look.

"Where is she!" Jun demanded.

Garuru slowly opened his mouth. For his son's own safety, he'd have to—

"Screw it, I'm gonna tell him." Pururu stood up.

"Puru—!" Garuru covered his mouth. "Kimi."

"So that's what your real name is." Jun stood up as well. "I know you're keeping secrets from me, Mom and Dad." It had already been bad enough finding out so many years ago that their names weren't actually Mom and Dad.

"Honey, we just want to protect you from the peacekeepers—"

"I can take care of myself," he snapped.

Pururu sighed. She looked at Garuru. "We need to tell him."

"No, yeah, you're totally right," he immediately agreed. "We are _not_ repeating Pul…. We are not repeating what happened."

They sat him down on a cushion and sat across from him.

"Jun." Pururu took a deep breath and tilted her chin up, trying her hardest not to cry. "Your sister…. She's dead."

Jun's eyes widened. "But I saw her—"

"That was her demon," said Garuru. He clenched his fists. "Um… you see… on your sixteenth birthday when your demon 'leaves' you… you demon doesn't actually… _leave_ you."

"What… does happen?" he asked cautiously.

"You fight." Garuru narrowed his eyes. "If you win, your demon leaves. If your demon lives… well… they get to keep your body." He sighed, raising a shaky hand to his head. "Your sister… she didn't win."

A horrified wail escaped Jun's throat. "So she's really dead!"

Garuru and Pururu nodded sadly.

Jun started sobbing. "Why—Why didn't you tell her about the fight?!"

"Contract rules," said Pururu. "We were so sure—so certain that she would just win…. So many other kids do."

"It was her stupid demon," Garuru growled. "I should have recognized that name sooner. _Urere_. His demon ability is 100% success in everything he does. God _dammit_!" He brought his fist down on the ground. Jun flinched at his outburst. He'd never seen his father this angry. He started crying again.

"Come here." Pururu opened her arms and caught Jun in them. She stroked his hair. "We won't repeat this mistake again."

"I don't care!" he bawled. "My sister's dead!"

She inhaled, shuddering. "I know. And… there's nothing we can do about that anymore. We can only change the future. We'll make sure you get a weak demon. One that you can easily beat. Your father… he knows almost every demon there is. Once you find out which demon you're getting, we'll train you. And then beat your demon and live on to have a happy, fulfilling life."

After several hours of Jun crying and Pururu rocking him like he was a little kid again, he sniffled and asked his parents, "So… a lot of the adults walking around…. They're demons?"

"Correct," said Garuru.

"Then you're…?"

"We're both demons," he confessed.

"Ah." Jun took this in. "I already kind of knew."

"What?" Pururu and Garuru looked at each other. "How?"

"Well… uh… you never sleep. Aaand one time I saw Dad summon a sniper from out of nowhere. I just didn't know which demon Dad was until I went to the temple to look at demons," he told them. "When Dad told me about Garuru, I knew that one had to be him."

"Oh—" said Garuru.

"Plus you kind of yelled it a couple days ago when Pulala—well… when her demon—came home." He looked up at his mom. "And I assume your name is Pururu?"

"Yes," she answered. "In the demon realm, I'm known as a healing demon."

He turned around to face them. "Demons are, like, immortal or something, right? So… what will you do when I die?"

"You won't die," Pururu assured him.

"When I die of old age," he clarified. "What will you do? Where will you go?"

"Eventually the energy in this human body will run out," said Pururu. "And we'll go back to the demon realm."

"Like… you'll wake up?"

She shrugged. "I suppose so. Then I'll resume my work for the medic…. Your father will return to his work for the Demon King—"

"I hope this body lasts a good long while," Garuru grimaced.

"You work for the Demon King?" said Jun. "The most powerful demon alive?"

"The _worst_ demon alive." He coughed. "It's not a job I take pride in, Jun."

"So—So you guys must be, like, super famous in the demon realm!" For some reason this delighted Jun. He almost formed half of a smile. Then he stopped, remembering that his sister was dead.

With a quieter tone, Jun asked, "Will you remember Pulala and me? Even thousands of years from now?"

"Of course we will, honey," Pururu assured him.

"Do you promise… to never have kids in any other of your lives in the human world?"

Pururu and Garuru both started chattering at once. "Oh, yeah, definitely no more after this."

"Very good one-time experience."

"Two kids is enough!"

"No more heartbreaking moments."

"I just can't go through with this again."

They squeezed each other's hands. Then they brought Jun in for a tight, loving hug. "We won't let you die like Pulala did, Jun. We won't repeat the same mistake."

* * *

When it was time to take Jun to his Possession, although Garuru and Pururu had done extensive research on his demon and told Jun exactly how to beat it, they were still afraid for him.

But two years later, when Jun walked into the house as a sixteen-year-old, Jun gave his parents a hug and looked straight into their eyes. "I won. I really did. That demon didn't stand a chance against me. No need to throw out all my music and posters. You can't earn your place in the world unless you fight for it." He smirked. "If you still don't believe I'm me, then Dad"—He pointed his finger at Garuru—"your secret rubber duck stash is in the bottom bathroom cupboard and your replacement utensils are in the drawer where the paper plates are supposed to be because you can't use chopsticks but you don't want Mom to know."

She laughed. "I already do."

"And Mom I know that you have a crippling fear of growing old. But you really should work on that sometime. You've grown old a thousand times before. Aren't you used to it—"

"Yup, he's our son," she said with a laugh.

They hugged him and cried in happiness.

* * *

Many years later, as Garuru and Pururu sat together at their grandchild's wedding ceremony, they found each other's hands through the folds of their robes and clasped them, sharing the same thought.

 _This_ was what it meant to be human.

Not the death of their daughter. Not the devastation of loss.

Being human was being able to experience progress and change, all in such short a time. Being human was to love, hate, cry, and laugh together. Being human was to make mistakes and find ways to mend and prevent them.

Being human was to love and forgive.

"Pururu," Garuru asked her after the ceremony when they were alone together, "will you marry me?"

"Garuru," she laughed. "We're already married!"

"Back home, I mean," he clarified. "In the demon realm. We'll… be returning there soon."

She gave him a sweet smile and stroked his cheek. "Garuru, I've loved you for over ten thousand years." She kissed him on the lips. "Why would I say no?"

In time, they both passed away. They met each other back in the demon realm, where an extravagant demonic wedding ceremony was held for them.

Years later, when they came back to the human plane with new hosts, they weren't sure where their descendants had drifted off to, but that was all right…

…as long as they were somewhere in the world, just being human—

—a glorious and fortunate thing to be.

END

* * *

UPDATE:

Giroro continued to keep many cats in his house and preach about how communication was vital to relationships

Tamama kept tracking down Keroro in their subsequent lives on the human plane together and scoring heavily

Keroro remained unaware all these humans he was scam-dating were demons… and all the same one

Zeroro discovered natto and became one happy camper

Kululu remained being a soggy bagel because he was too stuck-up to ever learn to move on like Garuru and Pururu did

Taruru never won a single staring contest with a bar of soap. But he did win one with a pogo stick

Tororo's book fell out of popularity and he later became a renowned video game hacker on TouTube

Zoruru eventually got his revenge for the popsicle. He tripped Zeroro in the mall once. Ha

* * *

 **A/N: Originally I was going to have it that Garuru and Pururu just... never told Jun what happened to his sister until like the day before his Possession. Like it was some big family secret. Then I scrapped that because Communication Is Important.**

 **Idk why I decided to write this. Okay I lied I do. It was an excuse to write more Kururuko. And I didn't even _do_ much of that godammit.**

 **Anyway I hope y'all enjoyed. Please share your comments! I love readin' 'em.**


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